Rep. Matt LoPresti will host a teach-in to discuss personal internet privacy on both the federal and state levels following the recent loss of government protections by the Trump Administration.

The Teach-in will be held on Sunday, April 30 from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Box Jelly, 301 A Kamani Street in Honolulu.

With internet protections rules repealed, internet service providers are now allowed to track, package and sell your personal internet browsing history without your knowledge or consent.

Rep. LoPresti and a panel of internet security experts will explain attempts during the current legislative session to protect personal privacy, what steps are now being planned and, most importantly, what residents can do now to protect themselves.

Todd Nacapuy, Chief Information Officer of the state Office of Enterprise Technology Services will attend the event along with internet security experts.

Residents can bring their laptops to learn how to install a VPN (virtual private network) and ‘HTTPS everywhere’ add ons to their browsers.

The gap in privacy protections left by the federal actions require individual states to take action to protect consumers’ data. One of the most troubling aspects is that telecom companies are no longer responsible for protecting your data, even though they will be collecting it, according to Rep. LoPresti.

“The problem is multi-faceted and there are currently no government protections from companies selling your personal data to the highest bidder,” said LoPresti. “You need to know how to protect yourself until we can create state laws to make this kind of abuse illegal.”

LoPresti said it is now clear from the large amount of money donated to Congress members who voted to repeal these rules, that internet service providers have a huge invested interest in our private data including Social Security numbers, geo-locations, and browsing history.

“Even if telecom companies do not actually package and sell the browsing histories for individuals, they are compiling and packaging that data for sale as part of larger aggregates, and – thanks to Congress and President Trump signing the bill – these companies are not even incentivized to legally protect this data,” he said.

LoPresti said that everyone is vulnerable and should take action on their own to protect internet privacy.